St Mary's Church, Portsea

First church Though Portsmouth was generally seen to be founded in 1181 by Jean of Gisors, in 1164, the Norman lord of the manor, Baldwin de Portsea, informed Henry de Blois, the Bishop of Winchester, that he was giving the church of St. Mary, together with some land, cattle, sheep and hogs to the prior and canons of Southwick Priory. Until the 19th century, St Mary's church would have been surrounded by farms and fields, and it was not until the 19th century, when the dockyard and population began to grow, that a new church was required. A gallery was built within the church to increase capacity, featuring box pews, but eventually, it was decided to rebuild the church. Second church The new church was built in 1843 at a cost of £5,000) and was designed in the Early English Gothic style by Thomas Ellis Owen. It incorporated the Tudor west tower of the old church. On 25 August 1894, the church was broken into and set alight by crumpling the altar cloth, pouring spirits nearby and turning on the gas. Though there was severe damage to the communion table, the fire burnt out before taking hold of the church. The church remained essentially as completed until the Second World War, when during the Portsmouth Blitz, two bombs narrowly missed the church, falling on Woodland Street immediately behind the church, on 24 August 1940. Though the church itself was not hit during the bombing, the shockwave from these two bombs shattered most of the glass of the large east window. The roof was repaired again in 2000, which also including retiling the entire nave roof. Restoration of the tower commenced in early 2008, a project costing £700,000, of which £300,000 was given by English Heritage == Architecture ==

Plan The church was designed in the Neo-Perpendicular Gothic style and features a west tower, an aisled nave of six bays, north and south porches, chancel, and lady chapel. There are vestries towards the east end of the church, as well as lean-to narthexes on the north and south faces of the tower. the present tower rises to 167 feet (51 metres) high. The south-facing nave aisle has a low projecting porch where it meets the tower, featuring stepped offset buttresses each terminating with stone pinnacle, facing stone gable with traceried stone panels, and an embattled parapet. To the left of the porch are three Perpendicular style 3-light windows, featuring flanking stepped buttresses. The nave has 6 paired 2-light Perpendicular style clerestory windows, flanking stepped pilasters each rising to a crocketed pinnacle. At the junction of the nave with chancel is an octagonal stairs access turret with at top a Tudor type flat arch and traceried window to each face. To the right of the aisle is the projecting 2-bay Lady Chapel with two 5-light wide Perpendicular style windows. Flanking stepped buttresses with diagonal buttress to each corner and again, an embattled parapet. The chancel is lower and narrower than the nave, with stepped offset buttresses each rising into a crocketed pinnacle. The chancel is lit by a large 7-light Perpendicular style window. To the right of the chancel is the north transept, containing the 2-storey vestry, sacristy and organ loft There is an octagonal stair turret on the south side of the chancel, giving access to the roof. The stair turret, like most of the church, has an embattled parapet. The north side has aisle, nave and chancel windows all similar to the south side. To the right of north aisle within the 5th bay is a projecting porch, with flanking panelled pilasters, and a stone parapet. Interior The interior is light, open, and airy. The main entrance is located under the tower, and there is a decorative lierne vault between the west window and the tower arch. The west window itself is of 4-light stained glass, dedicated to the memory of W. H. Smith. The tower is notably thinner than the nave and, as such, the tower arch does not span the entirety of the nave's west wall. Above the tower arch is a three-light stone window frame, the middle panel of which provides views of the church from the ringing chamber behind it. The nave is tall and wide, featuring a large arcade spanning the height of both aisles; each pointed arch in the arcade separated from the clerestory above it by a thin triforium. The nave is separated from the tower by an iron rood screen. The north nave aisle windows depict scenes from the Old Testament, that of the south nave aisle from the New Testament. There is also a royal coat of arms in the south aisle, dating from 1822, and which was originally placed in the medieval church. The nave has a spectacular hammerbeam roof, the supports for which start midway up the clerestory buttresses. The roof is made out of oak and features gilded bosses. The chancel starts with a wooden barrel vault, but past the chancel arch becomes a stone lierne vault. Behind the altar is a large 7-light window, the glass for which was made in 1952, after the previous glass was mostly destroyed by a bomb in 1940. Building materials The building is primarily built externally from flint, with Bath stone as dressing. The roof of the nave and aisles is tiled, that of the tower and chancel covered in lead. The font, which stands in the centre of the nave, is built from alabaster, taken from Staffordshire. The pulpit, which is of "exceptional size", is made of Hamstone from Somerset. == Organ ==

With 2,622 pipes, the present organ is amongst the largest and finest in any parish church on the South Coast. It was built by J. W. Walker & Sons, beginning in 1888, during the construction of the new church. The new organ was designed from the outset to be of "Cathedral-size" proportions, with four manuals. The cost of the new instrument was £1,784, and by early 1889, £873 of the total had been raised. For the first two years following installation in 1889, the organ only contained two manuals and pedals, though the organ console was prepared as a four-manual instrument. The organ was later completed in late 1892 thanks to a gift by W. H. Smith's widow. The proposed solo organ, which would have been used via the fourth manual, was never installed, and the extra manual was thus redundant until it was removed in 1965. 2020-2023 restoration In F2020, a three-year restoration of the organ began, the most comprehensive in its history. The project had a substantial boost by a grant from the National Heritage Lottery totalling £764,000. A requirement of their award is that the parish now has to raise £64,000. As of June 2021, £29,800 has been raised by the church. The project involves dismantling the entire instrument and sending it to Nicholson & Co's workshop, located in Malvern, Worcestershire. Whilst there, the pitch change in 1981 will be reversed, new electro-pneumatic mechanisms will be manufactured, the 1965 console to be replaced with a replica of the original console, all pipes to be thoroughly cleaned and returned to original Victorian condition, the reeds to be re-voiced with new tongues, the electrical system replaced, and the casework waxed. The pipes left the church on 12 November 2020. Whilst the Walker organ is being restored, a Viscount Regent 365 digital organ, featuring three manuals, has been lent to the church courtesy of South Coast Organs and Viscount Classical Organs UK. Due to the cavernous size of the building, thirteen amplifiers have been installed to project the sound of the Viscount organ across the church. == Bells ==

In 1764, Lester & Pack of Whitechapel, London, cast a peal of six for the church, hung in the small, Tudor tower the old church possessed. When the new church was nearing completion in 1889, four of these bells were transferred from the old tower to become the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th of a "new" ring of eight, accompanied by four newly cast by bells, also by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. All eight bells were hung in a new timber frame in the uppermost stage of the tower. The tenor bell weighed approximately 16 long hundredweight (810 kilograms) and was in the key of E. The "new" ring of eight were first rung on the consecration day, 10 October 1889, by a specially selected band of ringers from across the Diocese of Winchester. The "new" ring of eight were considered to have a "remarkable depth of tone", but were highly challenging to ring, even by the experts selected, for the bells were hung some 70 feet (21 metres) above the ringing chamber. This caused issues, not just because of the sheer length of "elasticated" rope, but also significant tower movement from the bells being hung so high in it. Further complications were caused by less than sympathetic building practices in the belfry, involving the staircase crossing the paths of the ropes. The Bell News records in the 26 October 1889 issue that the band were forced to give up their peal attempt due to "sheer exhaustion". By 1932, however, the bells were in a sorry state. It become clear neither the fittings nor frame were able to carry on, and so the tower was closed to all ringing until the financial situation presented itself to allow the bells to be restored. This was likely to have been for some considerable time, given the poor nature of the parish, had it not been for the intervention of Mr F. Hopkins of the Barron Bell Trust, who offered to gift the cost of recasting and rehanging all eight bells, which was accepted. Consequently, the old bells and frame were removed in late 1932, the bells and frame being sent to John Taylor & Co in Loughborough, Leicestershire, for complete recasting and restoration. and struck the note F. The bells were rehung in a brand new cast iron bell frame, hung some 25 feet (8 metres) lower in the tower, in the stage below the louvres. The bells were provided with all new fittings, including ball bearings, and Hasting stays. ==List of vicars==

The following priests have been Vicar of St Mary's: • 1878–1896; Edgar Jacob, later Bishop of Newcastle, then St Albans • 1896–1901; Cosmo Gordon Lang, later Archbishop of York, then Archbishop of Canterbury • 1901–1909; Bernard Wilson • 1909–1919; Cyril Garbett, later successively Bishop of Southwark, Bishop of Winchester, then Archbishop of York • 1919–1927; John Francis Lovel Southam • 1927–1939; Geoffrey Charles Lester Lunt • 1939–1944; Henry Robins • 1944–1961; Walter Smith • 1961–1970; Freddy Temple, later Bishop of Malmesbury • 1970–1981; Ken Gibbons, later Archdeacon of Lancaster • 1981–1991; Michael Brotherton, later Archdeacon of Chichester • 1992–1998; Robert Wright, later Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons • 2000–present; Bob White ==See also==